Ones and Zeros

Once again it is a beautiful VFR day.  So naturally, instructor M and I are going flying IFR and I will just see the instrument panel and the inside of my foggles.  Ironically during my private pilot training I had a long series of IFR days that prevented me from flying.

Today’s flight isn’t the officially-required 250 nm long cross-country with stops at three airports.  It’s a preparatory cross-country flight to get used to working in the ATC system.  We’re going to York PA.  We’ve discussed what to file previously.  I do the brief and filing on DUATS before the flight and bring printed flight plan with me to the airport.

This is only the second time I copy a real clearance from ATC.  I do that after starting up and before taxiing out.  I set up the route in the GPS.  I’ll be using that for nav, and backing it up with the VOR.  With our route I can’t think of anything I’d like to do with the ADF though.

We depart and I make my radio callouts as normal. I’ve fallen into the bad habit of calling out my IFR fixes to VFR traffic when I depart.  Of course this means nothing to the VFR folks and I need to change this.  M and I will talk about this during post-flight debrief.

As expected, we don’t follow our planned route.  That route is there to give us a predictable thing to do in case of lost communications.  But, Potomac approach and I are talking with each other and they turn us direct to York as soon as they can.  I did file as a GPS-equipped plane so they know we can navigate that way.  (Around this complex airspace, and with the added complications of the SFRA and FRZ, I consider a GPS to be required equipment.)

The rest of the flight is routine.  I do have to adjust the heading on the directional gyro to match the compass more often than normal.  The DG will drift some and this is normal.  It seems to be drifting more than usual though.   I remember to tune for the weather at York, but forget to actually listen to it till prompted by Harrisburg ATC.

I’m handling all the radios this flight (barring traffic calls).  So with pointers from M, I request the approach I’d like in York: GPS runway 17.  He directs us to that approach and clears us.  Through most of the approach the controller was discussing with another pilot the pilot’s amphibious airplane type, where it could land, etc.   No matter, it was just the three of us on the frequency.

I follow that in doing my turns and descents and change to the local frequency.   Naturally, there’s a local VFR guy on the opposing runway direction.  But he’ll be off by the time we’re close, M watches for him and confirms this for us.   I wasn’t perfectly on the approach, but did a reasonable job of it.  My new mindset of “constructive distraction” seems to be helping.

We did a low approach, and with prior arrangement, did the missed to pick up our flight plan back home.  Harrisburg had already given me my initial heading and altitude.  I turned to that and climbed.  My heading indicator (DG) is having fits.  It sticks for a second or two, then catches up, then sticks again.  We agree to keep an eye on it.

M offers to fly or to copy our new clearance.  I ask him to back me up and let me do it all.  This is good practice for busier times in flying.  I copy the clearance, it comes with transponder first instead of clearance first as is usual.  I copy it more or less legibly and read it back correctly to Harrisburg.  Then, I set up the route in the GPS.  M corrects my first fix as PIFER, not HYPER.

My heading is wandering, I fix that, and get back to the route in the GPS.  Change HYPER to PIFER and start heading there.  Harrisburg ATC comes back with a heading for me to fly to HYPER.  M and I realize that I had it right at first.  This is notable as the first mistake M made in all my flying with him.  On a radio PIFER and HYPER sound very similar, next time we’ll verify it phonetically.

I finish the route set up and the GPS wants to go to the second fix instead of the first.  I instruct it back to HYPER and then we’re given a new ATC frequency from Harrisburg.  I tune that, and introduce myself.  He sends us directly to our home’s approach fix.  Great, and I just got the GPS set up.  So, I tell the GPS to skip ahead to that fix and take up my new heading.

The DG is not moving now.  It’s a full 40 degrees off our heading.  I point this out to M and grab a cover for the DG so it doesn’t distract me.  I’m heading home on partial panel.  That’s not supposed to be this lesson, it is a couple lessons ahead.  The cover doesn’t cover the whole DG face so we can see when the DG unsticks itself and spends the rest of the flight and localizer approach to home spinning gently to the left. I believe this is original equipment, that would make it a 35 year old instrument.

This is a pain, and isn’t a cheap fix either.  But I have a compass and I know how to use it.  I also have a GPS that’s showing me heading too.  We discuss mentioning this to ATC, but M reminds me it’s a beautiful clear VFR day and he’s there looking.  Normally, if it were actual IFR or just me, I should tell ATC though.

UNOS: Undershoot North, Overshoot South.  That’s the mantra for the compass errors in turns.  Also, 3 degrees per second (or about 3 seconds for 10 degrees) is the turning rate for standard-rate turns. Right now I’m just holding my heading with small adjustments for wind.  But later I’ll make some turns at ATC direction and to intercept the localizer approach.

We’ve spent some of this flight trying to anticipate the next frequency that ATC will give us.  M is good at this as he knows the area and system very well.  He’s gotten several.  I try it on the way back near home and tune our local home airport frequency in the standby so it’s ready to flip.  Immediately after I do that, ATC gives us another ATC sector instead of the home airport.  M and I laugh, and I change it, acknowledge the change, next introduce myself to the new controller, then set the home frequency in the standby again.

The approach goes well, again not perfect.  But again I’m in the inner circle most - but not all - the time.  I finally get what M’s telling me about “walking down the approach” with the rudders to control direction.  We’re too close to make regular turns, even very small ones.  We land and roll out and go inside to debrief.

I’m disappointed that the DG failed.  This is my second gyro failure in this instrument training (the turn coordinator failed in my first lesson in the plane).  Some people fly for years without this happening.  But I’m pleased that I handled it well.  And, that I didn’t have a melt down with flying and taking the clearance back from York too.  While it could have gone smoother,  I made it work.

Hours: 33.9 simulated or actual instrument.  Now, to get the DG fixed.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 07:34 and is filed under aviation, flying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.